was thought that in future it would be more consonant with the
imperial dignity for the sovereign to remain concealed behind a
grating where, unseen, he could hear all that was said. Towards
the middle of Suleiman's reign even this practice was abandoned,
and the sultans henceforth attended the divans only on the
distribution of pay to the troops or the reception of a foreign
ambassador, which occasions were usually made to coincide. The divan
accompanied the sultan on military expeditions.
As established by Mahommed II., the officials of the state were divided into four classes: (1) administrative; (2) ecclesiastical; (3) secretarial and (4) military. The administration of kazas, or cantons, was usually entrusted to the cadis and the holders of the more important fiefs; the sanjaks, or departments, were ruled by alaï beys or mir-i-livas (colonels or brigadiers), pashas with one horse-tail; the vilayets, or provinces, by beylerbeys or mir-i-mirans (lord of lords), pashas with two horse-tails; these were all originally military officers, who, in addition to their administrative functions, were charged with the duty of mustering and commanding the feudal levies in war time. Above them were the beylerbeys of Anatolia and Rumelia, who served under the orders of the commander-in-chief. The title of vizier was borne by six or seven persons simultaneously; the grand vizier was the chief of these and exercised supreme authority, being invested with the sultan's signet. He often commanded an army in person, and was then given the title of serdar-i-ekrem (generalissimo); one of the subordinate viziers remained behind as kaïmmakam, or locum tenens. The duties of the other viziers were limited to attending the divan; they were called kubbē or cupola viziers from the fact that the council met under a cupola; they were pashas with three horse-tails, and were attended by large retinues, having generally achieved distinction as beylerbeys. These officers were usually chosen from among the more promising of the youths selected by the devshurmē, or system of forced levy for manning the ranks of the Janissaries: hence so many of the statesmen of Turkey were of non-Mussulman origin. Besides these members of the secretarial class, such as nishanjis and defterdars, as well as regular army officers, and occasionally members of the ecclesiastical class, or ulema, rose to the rank of vizier.
The highest dignitaries of the ecclesiastical class were at first the kazaskers, or military judges, of Europe and Asia; later the office of Sheikh-ul-Islam was created as the supreme authority in matters relating to the Church and the sacred law. Promotion was regular, but was obtainable only by entering at an early age one of the medressēs or colleges; the student, after passing through the successive degrees of danishmend, mulazim and muderris, became first a molla, then a judge, rising to the higher ranks as fortune and opportunity offered. In the time of Bayezid II. the post of nakib-ul-eshrāf, or registrar of the sherīfs, or descendants of the Prophet, was created.
The secretarial class consisted of six categories: the nishanjis, the defterdars, the reïs, the defter emini, the shakk-i-sāni (or second class) defterdars and the shakk-i-sālis (or third class) defterdars. The first named were charged with the duty of revising and duly executing the decisions of the divan respecting the assignment of lands to warriors and the apportioning of conquered territories. They were men of great culture, and many historians, poets and writers belong to this class. The defterdar was practically the minister of finance. The reïs was the secretary-general of the divan, and in more modern times became minister for foreign affairs. The defter emini kept the registers for the nishanji, whose place he took on emergency, the others acted as secretaries and clerks.
The military class was divided into two categories: (1) the regular paid troops who were quartered in barracks and were known as “slaves of the palace”; (2) the feudal levies who received no pay and were called upon to serve only in war-time. The Janissaries (q.v.) belonged to the first category. The rigid regulations for admission to their ranks were soon relaxed : at the close of the Persian war in 1590 their total amounted to 50,000. The regular troops comprised also armourers (jebeji), from 6000 to 8000 men, and six squadrons of cavalry; these were recruited in the same way as the Janissaries, and their numbers were raised by Murad III. to 20,000. There were also bostanjis, or forest-guards, numbering about 5000, besides local troops in distant and frontier provinces, and about 20,000 akinjis, or light troops, in Europe, who carried out forays in the enemies' country.
The fiefs were not hereditary, and were held directly from the sultan. On the conquest of a country the lands were apportioned by the nishanjis, who first computed the tithe revenue of each village, its population, woods, pasturage, &c.; and divided it into the three classes of fiefs (khās, ziamet and timar), or into vakŭf (pious endowments) or pasturage. Any estate with a revenue exceeding 100,000 aspres was a khās, and was conferred on a prince or on a high dignitary as long as he held his post; for each 5000 aspres of revenue one armed warrior had to be furnished in war. Fiefs with a revenue of from 20,000 to 100,000 aspres were called ziamets and were conferred on similar terms on inferior officers, usually for life or during good behaviour. Fiefs with a revenue of from 3000 to 20,000 aspres were timars, furnishing one armed warrior for every 3000 aspres' revenue; the grant of a fief was conditional on obligatory residence. The peasants owning the land remained undisturbed in their proprietorship, paying to their feudal lord the tithe, as well as the fixed duties on transfer, &c. Abuses in the system first began in the time of Khosrev Pasha, Suleiman's grand vizier.
The governors of the more distant provinces enjoyed a considerable amount of independence, which in the case of the Barbary states was more or less complete; these entered into treaties with foreign powers, and by their piratical outrages frequently caused the Porte considerable embarrassment. The sherīf of the Hejaz, Abu-’l-berekāt, made submission to Sultan Selim I. After the subjugation of the Yemen, the absorption of the holy places was also attempted, and in Suleiman's reign judges were appointed thither from Constantinople. But it was found politic to continue the office of the grand sherīf of Mecca in the sherifian family.
The princes of the Crimea were invested with many of the prerogatives of independence, e.g. that of coining money; the ruler of Transylvania was allowed to retain the royal title, nor were Turkish troops quartered in the country. The Danubian principalities were also ruled by native princes until the Phanariote period (see Phanariotes).
On the 17th of February 1568, two years after the accession of Suleiman's son Selim, peace was concluded with Austria Selim II., 1566–1574. on the basis of the former terms, the emperor Maximilian having sent ambassadors to congratulate the new sultan on his accession. A disastrous attack on Astrakhan, with the object of carrying out Sokolli's plan for uniting the Don and the Volga, first brought the Turks into collision with the Russians. Expeditions against the Yemen and Cyprus were successful, but the loss of Cyprus, accompanied as it was by the barbarous murder of the Venetian commander, Marco Antonio Bragadino, by the seraskier pasha Mustafa's orders, in violation of the terms of the capitulation of Famagusta (August 1571), roused the bitter resentment of the Venetians, previously incensed by Turkish raids on Crete. Already, on the 25th of May, had been concluded the holy league between the pope, Venice and Spain for a new crusade against the infidel, in spite of the efforts of France to prevent the adhesion of the republic. Preparations were hurried on and at the end of September the great allied fleet, under Don John of Austria, sailed into the archipelago. On the 7th of October was fought the naval battle of Lepanto, which broke for ever the tradition of the invincibility of the Turks at sea. The immediate results of the battle were not, however, as decisive as might have been expected. In June 1572 a fresh Ottoman fleet of 250 sail took the sea; and the jealousy of the allies and the incompetence of their commanders made any repetition of their former victory impossible. After a series of indecisive engagements Venice broke from the league and, under the mediation of France, concluded a treaty with the Porte practically on the basis of uti possidetis (March 7, 1573). With Spain the war continued, and on the 24th of August 1574 Tunis—which had been taken by Don John of Austria in 1572—was recaptured by the Turks, who from this new base proceeded, under Sinan Pasha and Kilij Ali, to ravage Sicily.[1] In the same year Selim II. died. Known in history as the “Sot,” he had allowed his able grand vizier Mahommed Sokolli to rule the country.
The character of Murad III., who succeeded his father Selim II. at the age of twenty-eight, was not calculated to arrest Murad III., 1574–1595. the progress of decay within the Ottoman Empire. He was a weakling, swayed by his favourites in the harem, especially by his Venetian wife Safié; and, though he kept Sokolli in office, he was suspicious of the too powerful vizier, whose wise influence he allowed his minions to undermine. Thus eminent servants of the state such as Mustafa Pasha, Sokolli's nephew—who for twelve years had ruled the sanjak of Budapest with conspicuous enlightenment and success were deposed or executed to make way for the nominees of the harem. In even weightier matters the opinion of the grand vizier was slighted. Thus it was against his advice that, at the beginning of 1578, advantage was taken of the disorders arising on the death of Shah Tahmasp of Persia to attack
- ↑ It was ten years before a formal truce was signed with Spain (1584); two hundred years passed before the signature of a definitive treaty of peace and commerce (Sept. 14, 1782).
